Questors' Bill (1851)
재무관 법안 (1851)
Part of French Second Republic
The bill introduced on 6 November 1851 by the questors of the French Legislative National Assembly, the deputies in charge of the house's security and accounts, among them Baze and Le Flô. It sought to establish the Assembly's right to requisition troops directly for its own protection and so to forestall President Louis-Napoléon Bonaparte, who was preparing a coup. Most of the Mountain voted against it together with the Bonapartists and it was rejected on 17 November; the coup followed two weeks later.
In depth
When a constitutional revision allowing the president's re-election failed to win the required three quarters in July 1851, Bonaparte began preparing a coup and placed his men in key posts. General Saint-Arnaud became Minister of War on 27 October and reminded the soldiers of Paris that they owed total obedience to their superiors. Alarmed, part of the Assembly, mainly the royalists, sought to remind the army that the constitution came before the military hierarchy. The result was this bill, put forward in the name of the questors.
The bill was introduced on 6 November 1851 by the questors of the Assembly, among them the Orléanist deputy Jean-Didier Baze. It was to fix in law the principle that the President of the National Assembly could requisition troops directly for its defence, a parry put forward by Thiers. Orléanists such as Charles de Rémusat voted for it, and the republican colonel Charras, convinced that a coup was imminent, urged his colleagues on the left to vote with the monarchists. Most republicans, however, held that such a measure would only serve the monarchist majority and generals like Changarnier, and Michel de Bourges assured them that the deputies could rely on the protection of the people, that "invisible sentinel". The bill was rejected on 17 November.
In The Eighteenth Brumaire Marx wrote: "If by its motion to restore universal suffrage the executive power appealed from the National Assembly to the people, the legislative power appealed by its Quaestors' Bill from the people to the army." "By rejecting the Quaestors' Bill, it made public confession of its impotence. This bill was defeated, its proponents lacking a hundred and eight votes of a majority. The Montagne thus decided the issue." The Mountain, he said, was in the position of Buridan's ass, caught between the fear of Changarnier and the fear of Bonaparte.